Pulsara
In the cohort of patients, the utilization of the Pulsara platform decreased the average door-to-balloon times by 22% in patients with acute STEMI arriving at the emergency department. This effect was maintained when looking at the subset of all STEMI cases reportable to CMS. Researchers also observed modest improvements in meeting the less than 60-minute, less than 90-minute benchmarks, and improvements in the resource utilization. Read the full Critical Pathways in Cardiology publication here.READ MORE

SCAISeptember is Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) Awareness Month. PAD impacts more than 10 million patients in the United States alone but is woefully underdiagnosed and associated with high long-term mortality rates. SCAI is working to change this.

SCAISCAI is pleased to support congressional candidates who believe in our values and our desire to put patient care first. It is especially gratifying to support one of our own members, Nick Stella, MD, FSCAI, who is running for Congress in the 11th District of Illinois.

The SCAI PAC supported Dr. Stella, and Thomas Tu, MD, FSCAI, was on hand to congratulate him on his candidacy.

“I am pleased for the support from fellow physicians and hope to have the opportunity to advance policies that support patients and physicians," said Dr. Stella.

Dr. Tu said, “It was a pleasure to represent SCAI PAC and support a member who, if elected, will bring our perspective to decisions that will impact healthcare for our patients."

SCAI PAC is the only unified voice for interventional and invasive cardiologists in Congress. With Congress expanding its role in every facet of healthcare, SCAI PAC is the best way for interventional and invasive cardiologists to stand up for our profession and our patients.

TCTMDIn-hospital mortality, major bleeding, and vascular complications have all changed over time among patients in their 90s undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), according to new data, lending support to the view that frailty — not age — should take precedence in evaluating patients for revascularization. "This study provides a benchmark for the rate of in-hospital complications associated with PCI in nonagenarians presenting with acute coronary syndrome and stable ischemic heart disease," write the study authors, led by Kashish Goel, MD.
“Over the past decade, it has become clear that frailty — a complex interplay of biological, cognitive and social factors — is closely associated with adverse periprocedural outcomes in older adults,” they write. “Despite this, until recently, systemic assessments of frailty have been more routinely used before cardiac surgery or transcatheter aortic valve replacement than PCI. This may rapidly change with the upcoming iteration of the American College of Cardiology/Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions CathPCI registry, which includes a standardized assessment of frailty.”READ MORE

Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a multifaceted disease that demands various approaches in terms of diagnosis and treatment options. Devices for the diagnosis and treatment of CAD can be of high volume and low cost or of a relatively low volume and high cost. The U.S. interventional cardiology market, worth over $2.8 billion, is currently being influenced by changes in interventional and diagnostic procedures, as well as technological innovation and consolidation.
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MedscapeTranscatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has a distinct learning curve, with greater operator experience associated with incremental improvements in procedural and clinical outcomes, including 30-day all-cause mortality, according to a large international registry study.
Results show that 30-day mortality rates are significantly worse in low-volume centers, which perform fewer than 50 TAVR cases a year, than in high-volume centers, which perform more than 100 cases a year.READ MORE

MD LinxResearchers evaluated if the psoas muscle area (PMA) measurement has any predictive value for mortality in the transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) population. They reviewed multi-slice computed tomography scans (between 2010 and 2016) of 583 consecutive TAVI patients who were categorized into equal sex-specific tertiles (low, mid and high) according to an indexed PMA. READ MORE

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PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Reduce Dye. Reduce Risk.Society guidelines state the need to reduce dye in high risk patients as part of a strategy to reduce risk of AKI in the cath lab. Osprey Medical’s DyeVert™ Plus System is the only technology proven to consistently monitor and reduce dye dosage delivered to patients undergoing coronary angiography procedures.

TCTMDIt is now no longer necessary to perform routine balloon aortic valvuloplasty before every transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) case, and in fact, its use has been progressively declining over time, according to new observational data. In the early days of TAVR, operators were encouraged to perform predilatation to facilitate easier delivery and help with device sizing.
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MedscapeFor the first time in 17 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a coronary stent system to treat acute coronary artery perforations, which can occur during percutaneous coronary interventions.
The PK Papyrus (Biotronik) covered coronary stent system is available in 17 sizes and is the first 5-French compatible covered stent approved for the treatment of perforations in vessels 2.5 to 5.0 millimeters in diameter, according to the company.READ MORE

HealioFewer than half of patients with STEMI who were transported by emergency medical services had catheterization laboratory preactivation before they arrived at the hospital, despite a suggestion of mortality benefit from cath lab preactivation.
“Cath lab preactivation is currently defined and measured simply by whether or not it occurred, regardless of its timing in relation to hospital arrival,” Jay S. Shavadia, MD, cardiologist and researcher from Duke University Medical Center and the Duke Clinical Research Institute, said in a press release. READ MORE